Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(93)

Pohl started to move.

Sasha went into motion. “Stay here.” She tracked him like radar on a submarine as he weaved in and out of stunned members of the board, family, and staff.

Olivia’s encrypted voice kept talking. “Lodovica recruits for him. Like lambs for slaughter. And the board supports her. They have to. Every dirty secret is tied up . . .”

Behind Sasha, she heard a woman yell.

“Turn that off. It’s lies. Linette didn’t do this.”

Sasha hesitated, turned.

Brigitte rushed to the center of the room, next to Linette. “This isn’t your fault. None of it. I did.”

Sasha’s jaw dropped.

And someone grabbed her from behind.



AJ lost track of Sasha when Brigitte pushed forward.

The PA continued to play the audiotape they’d spliced together. Much of the room was in motion.

“Now would be a good time to make that call,” AJ told his dad.

“You did this?” Linette stood face-to-face with Brigitte.

“Keri was an accident. I mean, I didn’t mean to kill her. Then it was done. I needed to move. All of my best students were being taken by him. You and I couldn’t live our life. I’m tired of hiding.”

“And Amelia?”

Brigitte shook her head. “I had no choice.”

“How, Brig? Why? We just needed to be patient.”

“You mean invisible? You mean live a life hidden behind walls? No, Linette. I couldn’t wait. I did what I had to do. Pohl . . .”

The room watched as the drama unfolded. “What did Pohl say to you?”

“What do you think he said to me? If he goes, you go . . . and I won’t be far behind.”

“He knew it was you?” Linette asked.

“You’d like to think that no one knew about our affair, but that wasn’t the case. He’s been gloating to me for years, threatening to expose us and have both of us removed. Then how would we have stopped what he was doing?”

“Oh my God.”

“I did it for you,” she told her.

“You killed innocent people,” Linette cried.

AJ stared at the woman who’d shot his sister.

He saw red.

Then he tuned into the com link in his ear.

“Move out, team,” Neil’s voice yelled.

AJ heard Sasha’s rushed voice. “I need a . . .” He heard flesh hitting flesh. “Few minutes.”

He scanned the room. Didn’t see her and ran toward the door.



Sasha allowed whoever grabbed her to drag her a few feet, away from the people at the party and out into a dark corner of the courtyard.

“Pohl said you’d be hard to take down . . . nice and easy toward the car,” the voice of the man coaxed her.

The second Sasha felt the butt of a gun on her back, she moved. Every instinctive lesson she’d been taught kicked in.

Her body twisted, her elbow came up to her assailant’s temple, while her leg kicked his out from under him.

The gun skidded across the courtyard.

She retracted on the balls of her heeled feet, eyes alert.

Someone rushed her from the side while voices in her com link shouted orders.

“Retreat, Sasha. Authorities are on their way.”

She took a blow to her side, kept to her feet, and spun the man rushing her toward the first one on the ground.

Scanning the area, she saw Pohl exiting the courtyard and took off running.

She reached the darkness of the arches, lost visual, and skidded to a halt.

The sound of someone breathing told her where he was before she saw him.

She turned in time to catch his blow to the side of her jaw instead of her temple.

It stunned her but didn’t stop her movement. She twisted out of his range, hands up in a defensive position.

“It’s over, Pohl.”

Even in the dark she could see the heat in his eyes, the anger on his lips. “Even if you make it out of here alive, you’ll be dead in twenty-four hours,” he threatened her.

“Why wait? I’m here right now.” She motioned with her hands for him to engage, kept to the shadows.

He didn’t make a move.

She lowered her arms. “Too much of a coward to do any of the dirty work yourself.”

“You’ve gone too far, Sasha. I’ll have you and that adoptive family you’ve foolishly taken in before I’m done.”

Her hair stood on end.

Thoughts of Trina, Lilly . . . AJ all surfaced.

“I don’t think so.” One step into the shadows and Pohl moved forward. Sasha leapt around a pillar and shot in from his side. It was like hitting a stone wall. With more agility than she thought the man possessed, Pohl slammed his fist into her gut and tossed her back. Wind rushed from her lungs while adrenaline fueled her reserves.

“Lucky punch,” she mocked as she spun around with a kick to his knee followed by a jab to his face.

He lunged back and Sasha rushed forward and stopped short when she saw the muzzle of a gun gleam in the dim light from the corridor.

Before she could move out of range, she heard AJ shout her name.

Pohl hesitated.

A shot rang out and Pohl went down, holding a bloody hand as the gun skittered across the cobblestone path.